Total retail spend in NZ for the 28 days ending 28 January 2016 was $3.4 billion. This represents an increase of 2.6% compared to the same period last year, and a decrease of 19.4% when compared to the previous month.

Categories with the greatest increases since the same period last year were Furniture/Appliances/Electronics (+9.7%), Café/Restaurants/Bars (+8.1%) and Home & Building Supplies (+8.1%).

The greatest month on month decreases were in the Department Stores (-53.5%), Furniture/Appliances/Electronics (-38.3%) and Clothing & Footwear (-36.8%) categories.

Travel & Accommodation was the only category to see a month on month increase up 36.0%. Travel & Accommodation spend was also up since the same period last year by 6.3%. Supermarkets/Food Retailers experienced a month on month decrease in spend of 14.1% and a decrease of 0.1% when compared to the same period last year.